A clothes dryer having a heat pump for drying clothes has attracted attention as a dryer which is excellent in its drying performance and has the effect of energy savings. In the clothes dryer, an evaporator and a condenser forming the heat pump are circularly connected to a compressor so as to be disposed in an airflow path. The clothes dryer circulates air in a rotating container that houses laundry therein and rotates via the airflow path, and cools down the air circulated in the airflow path to be dehumidified by the evaporator, and heats the air by the condenser to be fed into the rotating container. In this way, the clothes dryer gradually dries clothes by repeatedly passing the air drawing moisture from the clothes through the airflow path.
In the clothes dryer, the evaporator condenses and collects water vapor generated from the clothes at the time of drying clothes. The compressor compresses refrigerant from which latent heat is collected at the time of condensing water vapor, so as to be converted into refrigerant at a high temperature. The condenser heats up air used for drying with the high-temperature refrigerant. In this way, provided that the latent heat obtained at the time of condensing water vapor is utilized as energy for heating up air used for drying, even if there is slight heat release (energy loss) to the outside, it is possible to reuse most of the energy without letting it escape. Accordingly, it is possible to realize highly-efficient drying.
In a clothes dryer disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 9-56992 (Prior Art Document 1), an airflow path is blocked off at a portion between an evaporator and a condenser. Then, air outside the airflow path is passed through the evaporator (cooler) to be discharged to the outside of the clothes dryer, which performs cooling of a space such as a washroom where the clothes dryer is placed.